Expertise

In February 2012 I received my master degree in Work & Organization Psychology (cum laude) at the University of Twente. My master thesis focused on the relationship between transformational leadership, work engagement, self-efficacy and departmental effectiveness in an educational context.

In August 2012 I also graduated cum laude in Business Administration (Human Resource Management track) at the University of Twente. During my master thesis I researched the relationship between work engagement on team level and work engagement on individual level. I also studied the antecedents and consequences of both types of work engagement in an organizational context. In January 2013 I started my PhD research at the University of Twente at the ELAN institute.

Research project

With the start of the academic year 2013/2014, the University of Twente (UT) has introduced a university wide curriculum innovation for all bachelor programs: the Twente Educational Model (TEM) also known as the Twents Onderwijsmodel (TOM) in Dutch. Each academic year is now divided into four modules. Based on the principles of project-based learning, each module consists of a central project and several additional courses. The courses provide information that is needed for the project. During the projects, students work together in teams and are guided by a tutor.

In order to develop the new curriculum, UT teachers now work together in multidisciplinary teams (one team for each module). This can be a new experience for teachers who mostly prepared their courses themselves in the previous system. Not only working in teams, but also the new project-based-learning approach and the new way of teaching (e.g. the new tutor role) can be a challenge for the UT teachers. In order to support individual UT teachers and whole module teams, my PhD research focuses on the professional development of UT teachers during the implementation of the new educational model. During my PhD research I analyze how module teams operate and how UT teacher professionalize through collaboratively developing the new curriculum, how UT teachers’ additional needs for professional development and how suitable professional development activities can best be organized.